Artificial Intelligence Serving Decision-Making in Marketing

Abstract

• Objectives / Research QuestionsCustomer participation is a central concern for many distributors, who must support customers to enable them to play their role in the production of the service. Support is considered as a combination of a content (affective, cognitive or instrumental) and a means that provides it (personal or physical support). The aim of the study is to examine how the presence or absence of combinations of support contribute to in-store customer satisfaction. • MethodologyThe methodology is based on the analysis of 3,920 spontaneous customer reviews, collected after an in-store experience. These comments mentioned the presence, absence or failure of assistance. These verbatim comments were then coded according to the content and means of the support mentioned, and analysed using the Tetraclass method. • ResultsThis research proposes three main contributions. Firstly, it provides a better definition of the concept of participation support and the elements that characterise it (means and content). Secondly, it proposes to use the Tetraclass model and its methodology on a new type of data: customer reviews. Finally, it shows that combinations of support do contribute to satisfaction in different ways, with some having a strong impact on overall satisfaction, others impacting on dissatisfaction, and still others affect both evaluations. • Managerial implicationsThe results are particularly interesting for managers, who can thus identify the effect of combinations of support on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This gives them levers for creating value associated with this support. They also have a methodology for exploiting customer reviews. • OriginalityThis research focuses on participation support. Despite the growing importance of the concept of participation, this subject remains little explored and many articles indicate it as an avenue for further research. In addition, the methodology is somewhat original in that it is based on spontaneous customer opinions and adopts the Tetraclass model to analyse the different logics of contribution to satisfaction.